BJP complains to PM against Karnataka case withdrawal

Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanswamy on Tuesday said he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister for Home Amit Shah and President Draupadi Murmu to ask the ruling Congress government in Karnataka to reconsider its decision to withdraw criminal cases lodged across the State prominently cases related to attack on a police station in Hubbali in 2022.

In separate letters, BJP MLC termed the cabinet decision of the State Government to withdraw criminal cases an “anti-Constitutional” step.

Referring to the Hubbali attack, Narayanswamy stated a miscreant allegedly made a derogatory statement on a social networking site about a particular religion on April 16th, 2022. Police arrested the miscreant and upon learning about the arrest, a mob gathered around the police station and insisted the arrested person be handed over to them.

When their request went unheeded, BJP MLC said, the mob attacked the police station and several policemen came under attack from the mob. The peace-loving people of Hubballi were compelled to shut down due to anti-national elements.

Now, a mob of 158 persons against whom serious allegations are registered have been made to go scot free by the “anti-Constitutional” step of the State Government.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transport Ramalinga Reddy at a press conference in Bengaluru stated cases registered against persons involved in pro-people agitations have been withdrawn including criminal cases of Hubbali.

The cases registered against Kannada Rakshana Vedike president Narayan Gowda, cases against persons involved in Paycm poster campaign in Bengaluru city, farmers protests over drinking water among others.

Reddy pointed out when BJP was in power, as many as 385 cases were withdrawn and of the withdrawn cases, 182 of them were related to communal disturbances, attack on a pub, moral policing among others.

BJP leaders such as C.T. Ravi, Maadhuswamy, Pratap Simha, Halappa Achar, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Sumalatha Ambareesh have also benefited from the withdrawal cases by the BJP government in Karnataka, said Reddy.

During the BJP term, Reddy said, cases against pro-Hindu organisations such as Sriram Sene, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch have also benefited from the withdrawal of cases against them.

“It was BJP which withdrew cases against Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI),” said the Minister.